SIALKOT: A plan has been prepared for promoting olive cultivation in Punjab and Azad Kashmir to boost olive oil production and help curb edible oil import bill, official sources told APP on Saturday.

The agriculture department of the Small and Medium Enterprises Authority (SMEDA) Punjab, was conducting awareness and training programmes to facilitate potential growers, they said.

The authorities were focusing on the districts of Sialkot, Narowal, Gujrat, Jehlum, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Attock, Chakwal and Khushab for olive cultivation, as recommended in the research report of the Barani Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Chakwal, they said.

Olive cultivation in Pakistan would require planting new saplings imported from the leading olive growing countries of the world or grafting the available wild varieties, sources said.

Sources said that olive cultivation would not require replacing other crops. Olive growing would boost local production of olive oil and help curb import bill of edible oil.